What is an air bubble? An air bubble is basically a bilateral arrangement accompanied with a set of regulations and restrictions in which the carriers of the two countries can operate international flights.
The Civil Aviation Ministry has recently said that India has established individual bilateral air bubble arrangement with Sri Lanka for operation of special international passenger flights between the two countries in its latest addition to the list of air bubble arrangements.
"India has finalized an air bubble agreement with Sri Lanka, making it the 6th such arrangement in SAARC region and the 28th in total," the Civil Aviation Ministry recently said via its Twitter media.
"All the eligible passengers will be able to travel between the 2 countries in the near future," it further pointed out.
Scheduled international flights has been under suspension in India since 23rd March, 2020 due to the ongoing global corona virus pandemic.
India at present has such pacts with 28 countries, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, the Maldives, Nigeria, Qatar, the UAE, the UK and the USA.
India has also already established individual bilateral bubbles with countries like France, Germany and the US that will allow airlines of each country in the pact to operate international flights.
India has air bubble agreements with the following countries in the world:
Afghanistan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Canada
Ethiopia
France
Germany
Iraq
Japan
Kenya
Kuwait
Maldives
Nepal
Netherlands
Nigeria
Oman
Qatar
Russia
Rwanda
Seychelles
Sri Lanka
Tanzania
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States ofAmerica
Uzbekistan
In the mean time there are also flights under the Vande Bharat Mission which are being flown between cities as listed below and is actually being operated under the Air Bubble arrangement:
UK: India - Birmingham – India
India - London – India
Germany: India- Frankfurt – India
France: India - Paris – India
Canada: India - Toronto – India
India - Vancouver – India
Japan: India - Narita- India
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